HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wow, what a 2010!!!!! Lets see. Wikileaks, wars, violence, progressive talk, more tax breaks for the wealthy, taxcuts for the middle class, midterm election, 9/11 mosque...what a headache! What's coming up? More of the same? Or a change? With all the change that's happening, I wonder if the teabagger candidates who claimed to be for the people, ended up being the same like their counterparts. For example:

GOP frosh: Where's my health care?

A conservative Maryland physician elected to Congress on an anti-Obamacare platform surprised fellow freshmen at a Monday orientation session by demanding to know why his government-subsidized health care plan takes a month to kick in.
Republican Andy Harris, an anesthesiologist who defeated freshman Democrat Frank Kratovil on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, reacted incredulously when informed that federal law mandated that his government-subsidized health care policy would take effect on Feb. 1 – 28 days after his Jan. 3rd swearing-in.

“He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,” said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. The benefits session, held behind closed doors, drew about 250 freshman members, staffers and family members to the Capitol Visitors Center auditorium late Monday morning,”. 

“Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap,” added the aide, who was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine.

Harris, a Maryland state senator who works at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and several hospitals on the Eastern Shore, also told the audience, “This is the only employer I’ve ever worked for where you don’t get coverage the first day you are employed,” his spokeswoman Anna Nix told POLITICO.

Under COBRA law, Harris can pay a premium to extend his current health insurance an additional month.

Nix said Harris, who is the father of five, wasn’t being hypocritical – he was just pointing out the inefficiency of government-run health care.

Harris hammered Kratovil on health care throughout a bitter fall campaign, despite the fact that the conservative Democrat voted twice against the reform package backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a close Kratovil ally.
“Although he voted against Obamacare, Mr. Kratovil refuses to commit to its repeal. Dr. Harris understands that the Obama-Pelosi-Hoyer agenda threatens to pull the plug on America's long-term health," Harris said in an Oct. 30 statement. “"In Washington, I will never vote to raise taxes, I will fight to repeal health-care reform, and I will work to balance the budget."

Huh?

While on the other side of the health care  debate:

Tea Party Rep. Refuses Congressional Health Plan

 A newly-elected GOP Rep. announced that he is refusing the congressional health insurance plan in a show of solidarity with the American people.

 Rep-elect Joe Walsh (R-IL) told the New York Times that he will stick to his Tea Party roots and decline the government health care provided to members of congress.

“I don’t think congressmen should get pensions or cushy health care plans,” he said. But it‘s a decision that’s not being welcomed by everyone in his family. Walsh’s wife has a pre-existing medical condition, and she’ll now be charged with the difficult task of finding a plan on the open market.

Walsh joins two other Republicans in declining the government’s health plan. So far, incoming Reps. Bobby Schilling (IL) and Mike Kelly (PA) have made similar decisions.

But Walsh’s decision is in lockstep with some of his other positions. He’s a staunch fiscal conservative who wants serious entitlement reform, is hoping to repeal Obamacare, and is even against the recent tax-rate deal.

“We cut taxes, raised spending and contributed to the deficit,” he said of the deal. “Republicans should have held out for something better.”

That, along with the rejection of health care, may be politically incorrect. But Walsh doesn’t care.“I’m going to D.C. absolutely prepared to lose in two years.”

 I wonder how long that will last? Especially when his wife has a preexisting condition? But how much do you want to bet that she will get full coverage because he's a rep? Oh I say very well, but then, progressives in the Democratic party will then say that why can't they do the same for EVERYONE? Hmmm?

Ah, now my state. The Land of Nuts and Fruits! Yes and you see them nuts and fruits all over California. In Los Angeles, we have a plethora of fruits: mangoes, papayas, guava, avocados, grapes (table and wine), and it's growing wild! The cost of avocados are cheap! And because we are a Democratic state, with a lot of liberals, neighbors who don't have avocados, share with people who don't have papayas or mangoes with guava. So the costs in the supermarkets are relatively cheaper than other states. While in Northern Cal. my good friend Sparkydunc grows walnuts. And he says that there are almonds too. So the prices are relatively cheap, than say: Ohio, Nevada or Arizona. Still, I wonder why he waters the tree while it's raining? There is a drought.

But besides all them yummy fruits and nuts, there are is this new growth, shunned mostly by the right and that's green jobs. Yes, the high-tech jobs were sprouting, but the bubble burst because Republicans like: Carly Fiorina the former CEO of Hewitt Packard who tried to usurp Senator Barbara Boxer seat and former PayPal CEO Meg Whitman tried to defeat Governor-elect Jerry Brown failed, because, both millionaire/billionaire outsourced good paying U.S. job to the Philippines...see a pattern? I see California  growing technologically in leaps and bounds.

There are some questions as to why Brown would not accept federal money, but when fed money is borrowed from: Korea, China and Japan, the obligation would be for our state to use their products and not create a manufacturing base in this state. Yes taxes may go up, but with taxes comes jobs. Good decent paying jobs, and the more we invest into our state, the better the chances we will thrive. This is economics 101. Let me explain.

Republicans talk about balancing the budget and stop spending. Give tax breaks to the wealthy and jobs will form. Well, we tried that since 1981 and what happened? We failed. What happens when money isn't spent? There is no growth. Here is how it works:

01) Give tax breaks to local businesses.
02)  Local businesses hire local people and pay them a living wage
03) Local people then spend locally: food, clothe, car, home and so on
04) Businesses are then subsidized from the people
05) Businesses then can buy more products
06) Pay a decent wage
07) Get a tax break

And the cycle continues. This also includes funding our roads, traffic signals, police, fire and so on so people can travel safely to:

02)  Local businesses hire local people and pay them a living wage
03) Local people then spend locally: food, clothe, car, home and so on
04) Businesses are then subsidized from the people
05) Businesses then can buy more products
06) Pay a decent wage

07) Get a tax break

See the cycle? No one is getting wealthy, people are living the American dream and living a healthy life.

While the Republicans want to balance the budget and cut spending. So if spemnding is cut:

01) Don't give tax breaks to local businesses.
02)  Local businesses outsource jobs
03) Local people then spend their hard-earned money from products made in Asia
04) And if you become unemployed, and you're a 99er, you are out of luck.

Where then is the growth? I'll give 2 to 1 the lapel pin you are wearing to some Fourth of July event is MADE IN CHINA???

Therefore, I see California doing well. And if you teabaggers outside of California say California sucks, keep in mind, we control the imports from Asia and price will go skyrocketing if we go bankrupt. I see hope in our state.